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21 P L A R A The advisory board worked with the planning department staff and the consultants to draw up the design guidelines. Hinshaw notes that the guide- lines are simple and concise. Each is accompanied by a small, illustrative sketch and a pho- tograph of abuilt example. "We preferred positive persuasion to preaching," says Hinshaw, "so the guidelines don't include a list of 'don'ts."' The guide- lines are an addendum to the city's zoning code. One issue dealt with during the eight-month process of pre- paring the guidelines was the fact that the character of the entryway corridors was pretty well set, with one-story strip malls and related automobile- riented commercial develop- mentpredominating. The con- sultantspointed out that future remodeling and expansion would provide opportunities to influence elements of the corridors, as would infill de- velopment on remaining sites. N N I C T I With better design and more concentration of activity, says Hinshaw, the ubiquitous strip malls could actually strengthen the community's image. San Diego's strip city Think "strip" in San Diego, and you think of El Cajon Boule- vard, once the city's main entryway from the east. Acity- sponsored design study for a six-mile portion of the road won a national merit award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1988. The idea, says landscape ar- chitect Andrew Spurlock of Andrew Spurlock Martin Poirier, one of the firms in- volved, was to create a sense of place along the strip. The study included streetscape de- signs and guidelines, and it eventually led to a new planned district ordinance for the area known as Mid City. Like Hinshaw, Spurlock sees the potential in strip malls, not just the problems. °There's been N G C E a lot of pressure here to build mini-malls," he says, "but there's also been a lot of oppo- sition. Our idea was to create a form for strip development that would reinforce the sense of community in the Mid City area. We wanted to make the highway seem more like a com- munityboulevard." The study recommended that the six-mile stretch, which in- cludessix traffic lanes plus turn- ing-lanes, be divided into pedestrian-oriented and auto- oriented "nodes" and that six higher density, mixed-use "dis- trict centers" be developed at major intersections, with more auto-oriented "linear areas" in between. Parking for district centers is behind the stores; for the linear areas, it's in front. The business group that was involved in the study has since adopted the guidelines, and sev- eral malls have been developed as recommended, including one, with aparhnents above the stores, designed by San Diego archi- =~ B 0 3 i ~. - t...e~~~.rsw ~~ _3 ~~_~.~ As called for in Plano's retail corner guidelines, one parking lot aisle leads directly to the shopping center. tect Rob Quigley, whose firm participated in the study. The city has adopted the guidelines as development standards in its planned district ordinance. More recently, the firm has been working with Solana Beach, a city just north of San Diego. Design guidelines for its major commercial strip, Highway 101, have been in- cluded in a specific plan for the highway corridor, recently completed by a team that in- cluded Spurlock's firm and two others: Cotton Beland/ Associ- ates of Encinitas, and Richard Friedson/Visions Studio of San Diego. The plan was accepted by the city council March 1. Once again, two different types of guidelines were drawn up, with most of the road given over to auto-oriented develop- ment but one, in the down- town, identified aspedestrian- oriented. Ruth Knack is.the senior editor of Planning. The guidelines offer several alternative building arrangements.